


Promises To Keep

by ghostboi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Gen, Ghosts, Hearbreak, Promises, Regret, Severus ponders, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 03:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1330627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostboi/pseuds/ghostboi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Still, sometimes he could forget the past as it had happened"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises To Keep

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Regrets & promises

There were moments when he could forget the past as it had happened and change it into what it might have been. He had come to realise over the years that the probability of her marrying him would have been just as strong as if he hadn't spoken those horrid words to her that day. Though he had forgiven her [years ago] for marrying _him_ , he hadn't quite forgiven _him_ for both his cruel treatment and for stealing her away.

Still, sometimes he could forget the past as it had happened.

Sometimes, when night was quiet and he was lost in his thoughts, eyes on a spot on the far wall, he could imagine another life from the one he was living. He could imagine a tidy little house with her, a teaching job at Hogwarts, a smile on his face far more often than it appeared now. He could imagine [in the faintest corners of his mind, with a lot of effort] that _that boy_ was his own son, his mother's beautiful eyes gracing his features. Those images usually died quickly in his head and reality took hold again - the boy was too much like _him_ , the image of his father. She was dead and gone and though he would have given anything to change that [even if it meant enduring _him_ for the remainder of his days], had tried to change that, he couldn't. He had failed in that task; for that reason, he vowed to himself that he would not fail her son.

He might die in the effort but he would not fail her son.  
This was his silent promise to a ghost of his past and a boy who held the future in his hands.


End file.
